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Develop a Treatment into a Script

Change a Treatment project's destination to a script format, keep its draft lines and history, and decide separately when to convert the text.

1 min readUpdated
Try it in Plot

A Treatment project can develop into Screenplay, Teleplay, Pilot, Stage Play, Multi-Camera Sitcom, or Korean Drama in the same project. Your writing, draft lines, takes, and save point history stay together. Changing this destination leaves the text and each draft's writing mode as they are.

  1. Save the treatment

    Save a draft on the project's main draft line before changing its format. A named save point or milestone makes the before-conversion version easy to find.

    Give the treatment version a useful name in History before you develop it into a script.
    Give the treatment version a useful name in History before you develop it into a script.

  2. Open the journey menu

    Select the journey stage in the editor toolbar — it reads Treatment or Notes — and choose Develop into a script under Project format. Pick Screenplay, Teleplay, Pilot, Stage Play, Multi-Camera Sitcom, or Korean Drama. You need editing access to make this change.

  3. Review the project-wide change

    The dialog lists the draft lines and open takes the change applies to: the format belongs to the whole project, not only the draft you have open. Choose Change format when the destination is right.

  4. Develop the writing, then convert when ready

    Continue using prose, outlines, and script sections. When this draft is ready, choose Screenplay in the writing-mode menu and review any conversion decisions. Choosing the destination alone has not rewritten the treatment.

Return to TreatmentLink to this section

Once a treatment has become a script project, the journey menu offers Return to Treatment under Project format. Every draft line — archived ones included — and every open take must first be in a mode Treatment supports: Freeform, Mixed, or Treatment. If one isn't, the dialog names it so you can open it and change its mode. Archived takes don't count.

Returning keeps the writing as it is; it doesn't undo a conversion to script. To get the prose back, restore a save point from before the conversion — restoring a save point changes the writing, not the project's format.

Before locking production pagesLink to this section

Production pages hold script only, so convert any prose and outline sections first — choose Screenplay from the journey menu. Revision mode covers the locking workflow and what can be changed after pages are locked.

What next

  • Your Document's Journey from Idea to Script

    Understand the stage beside your writing, choose a mode that suits the draft, and keep prose and scenes together as your story develops.

    Concept · 2 min read

  • Work with Prose & Script in One Draft

    Use prose for the story you are still exploring, outlines for beats, and script sections for scenes that are ready to write in screenplay form.

    Reference · 3 min read

  • Solve Word Import & Conversion Problems

    Find the next step when a Word file will not import, the preview changes its formatting, a mode is unavailable, or a return to Treatment is blocked.

    Fix · 2 min read

  • Save Points

    What a save point is, how it differs from autosave, and what the History tab lets you do with one: read it, compare it, restore it.

    Concept · 2 min read

  • Turn On Revision Mode & Colors

    Pro

    Lock the production draft, work through the colored revisions in the office's order, mark the changed lines with asterisks, and hand over a script that matches its conventions.

    How-to · 2 min read

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